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Watch out, Speaker Boehner

Chocola, the president of the Club for Growth, has become an influential congressional disciplinarian, but his hard-line positions have earned insiders’ scorn. …

In recent weeks, the Club opposed Boehner’s “Plan B” during the fiscal-cliff negotiations and the Senate-crafted compromise that ultimately passed the House with the help of Democratic votes. It also opposed the Hurricane Sandy relief package and pressured Boehner to prepare a budget that balances in a decade. …

Still, even though GOP grandees don’t applaud his tactics, Chocola thinks Boehner and company are nervous every time the Club sends out a “key vote alert” to its members. …

As Congress nears yet another debt-limit impasse and a potential government shutdown over federal funding, Chocola says he will continue to be a thorn in the leadership’s side. If Boehner doesn’t exact concessions, the Club will happily slam him.

If Boehner is “not willing to walk away from the negotiation, then he shouldn’t bother showing up,” Chocola warns. “If you can’t find a way to get us off of the path toward more debt and more spending, then shut it down.”

Blowback

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As a right-leaning independent deeply opposed to all things Obama, I am dismayed by the escalating infighting in the Republican Party.

The TruCons, despite their best intentions, have only served to assist Obama in increasing his power and moving toward his ultimate goal of an all-intrusive federal government, financed by confiscatory tax rates.

The constant whining of terminally unhappy conservatives at HA has become annoying in the extreme. They hate Republicans, they hate Boehner, they hate McConnell, they hate Rove, they hate ALL the Romneys, and now they are dumping on Rubio. They hate pretty much everyone with the exception of Sarah Palin, who they refuse to acknowledge is “over” with a capital O.

Whatever your walk of life, you are always going to run into people who just like to whine and somehow think they are making a contribution by doing it. If the TruCons want things done their way (unfortunately for them most of the country doesn’t like “their way”), it’s time for them to admit that they are never going to bend the Republican Party to their will, stop complaining and form their own political party.

Go ahead, stand the Buckley Rule on its head. Put the most conservative, rightwing candidates out there, irrespective of electibility. I look forward to seeing how much you can accomplish without holding actual political power.

Opposition to Plan B was stupid. Plan B is better than what we got. So, thanks a lot. They were absolutely right on that pork laden, spending bill also know as the Sandy relief bill.

besser tot als rot on February 4, 2013 at 5:24 PM

Time to introduce you to reality. We weren’t going to get Plan B so much as voted on in the Senate (much less through the Senate and past Obama’s veto pen), and if Bo(eh)ner had remained lead negotiator, we probably would have seen taxes go up twice as much as they did because Bo(eh)ner already had given up $1,000 billion (or if you prefer, $1 trillion) in new taxes as part of his “Grand Bargain”.

Who are you upset about? Ed’s recent post about Tagg’s trial balloon? That was more “meh” than “hate”. I don’t recall any other Romneys getting neutral/negative posts. Ann Romney’s typically referred to very positively around hotair.

The TruCons, establishment RINOs, despite their best intentions, have only served to assist Obama in increasing his power and moving toward his ultimate goal of an all-intrusive federal government, financed by confiscatory tax rates.
Meredith on February 4, 2013 at 5:49 PM

At what point should the GOP fight instead of always playing defense? Two thirds of Hurricane Sandy relief was total BS, yet Boehner and his band of weak sisters voted for it almost exactly as passed by the Senate.

Time to introduce you to reality. We weren’t going to get Plan B so much as voted on in the Senate (much less through the Senate and past Obama’s veto pen), and if Bo(eh)ner had remained lead negotiator, we probably would have seen taxes go up twice as much as they did because Bo(eh)ner already had given up $1,000 billion (or if you prefer, $1 trillion) in new taxes as part of his “Grand Bargain”.

Steve Eggleston on February 4, 2013 at 5:56 PM

Yes. I know that. However, one of our PR battles is with the leftist press who love to point to Republicans as the intransigent parties. We need to start fighting this battle on all fronts. We need to engage in the PR war, the culture war, the idea war, the war of defining terms, the war for the independents (i.e., explaining to them how their lives will actually improve under free market policies), etc. Right now, the only war we are engaging in is the war for the better/best policy (and Romney didn’t even do that – he simply argued that he’d manage the government behemoth better), hoping that will be enough to win the other wars. When your political opponents (the Democrats and statist Republicans) and their public relations people (the press) consistently use uncontested lies, straw men, and ad hominem, that is simply not enough.